Many electronic devices such as, for example, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs), organic transistors, inorganic electroluminescent films, and inorganic solar cells (for example, CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) solar cells) can be sensitive to the oxygen and moisture present in the ambient atmosphere. Research has therefore been undertaken to develop encapsulation methods and systems to protect electronic devices from oxygen and moisture and thus improve device lifetimes. There has been some success in encapsulating rigid devices on substrates such as glass with glass or metal caps.
A conventional glass-to-glass OLED encapsulation, for example, is illustrated in FIG. 1. Typically, multiple OLEDs are fabricated on a glass substrate (the “mother glass”) 102; however, for simplification, only one OLED 100 is shown on the mother glass 102 in FIG. 1. The mother glass 102 is encapsulated with a glass cover sheet 104 using an adhesive 106 (for example, a UV cured epoxy adhesive). The glass cover sheet 104 contains etched pockets 108, which contain a desiccant 110 (for example, CaO). The adhesive 106 is typically dispensed such that it forms an adhesive gasket surrounding each individual OLED 100 on the mother glass 102. After the adhesive 106 is cured, the encapsulated OLEDs are separated (for example, using a scribe-and-break procedure on the mother glass 102 and the glass cover sheet 104) into individual encapsulated OLEDs.